Tuesday, May 21, 2013

It's Just the London Skyline, Ah Sweetheart.....




It's an Indigo Girls reference. Get it? In a bit of poor timing, I had Strange Fire in the disc changer in my car for awhile just before I did this project, and now I can't get that song (or at least that line) out of my head.

I came up with the idea for this project one day while I was in the shower, which is, historically, where I get all my best ideas (I used to compose entire paragraphs of papers there when I was in grad school. Of course, the problem with composing paragraphs in the shower is that you have to memorize them and keep them in your head until you get to a computer). The thought process went something like this: "hmm....maybe a skyline of some sort for Ari's wall? Like the thing from the beginning of Frasier...the outline of Seattle. But not Seattle. Where? Atlanta? Because we live here? Boring. Paris? Eiffel tower? Too hard. ......London? London Eye! Yes! Also with string!"

This was back when we were first starting on Ari's room makeover, and I've spent a lot of time since then fretting that the end result would not match the vision in my head. I dealt with this anxiety by putting it off as long as possible instead of just doing it already and getting it over with. I think it's probably good that we waited until after the big Boston map fail, though. Probably we were due for a screw-up, and I'd rather it were that than this.

And....I'm really happy with it! It looks pretty much like it did in my head! yay! Ari loves it, too. Extra yay!

I'll just go ahead and show it to you instead of making you scroll before I get to the how we made it part. I can't wait anymore, because I'm so excited about it.



The materials for this project were a 2 by 4 foot sheet of plywood (around $11), stain (already on hand), a box of tiny nails ($1.50), and 3 skeins (is that the right word? it's such a fancy word) of embroidery thread ($1.20 for the 3). So a total cost of under $14.

We started with the blank sheet of plywood, a picture of a London skyline stencil that I found online, and my rough sketch:


We needed too big of a circle for any circle shaped things we could find in the house (mixing bowls, pizza pans), so we hammered a nail in the center of the future circle, tied a loop of string the right radius to it, and did this:


That's the inner circle I'm making right there. We debated whether to do the compartments on the edge of the ferris wheel, but decided not to. I mean, people don't actually have to ride in it; it's just a wall hanging. And we figured it would be pretty obvious it was a ferris wheel And also it would have been hard to cut out all the little round shaped things with the jigsaw.

Then I did my thing where I sketch and redo all the lines 400 times trying to get it right. Dave went back and marked the practice lines with Xs so he'd know where to cut:


Then down to the basement to cut it out! Dave drilled a hole to get the circle started:


Then cut it out with the jigsaw. In flip flops! Classy!



Then I stained it. I used Varathane Dark Walnut (they were out of the Minwax when we bought it. I think I like the Minwax better).


If this were a whale, we'd have been all done. But we still had to do the string part.

Dave hammered a gazillion little nails in two rows along either edge of the circle. He wrapped a tape measure around it to get the spacing even:



And then we put the thread on (it's hard to tell, but it's a light gray rather than white). We did a criss cross design along the edge and then all the spokes to the middle. This part was tricky at times; it's a little hard to tie the thread to the nails, for one thing. But mostly the problem was with the thread slipping off the nails. We wound up having to put a second nail in the middle, because we couldn't fit any more thread around the first one (this could have been avoided by using a bigger nail just for that center one).



But we persevered!


We hung it up over Ari's desk. For the big plywood whale in Abe's nursery, we used anchor screws. But this one was MUCH lighter since we'd cut so much wood away (and it wasn't going to be hanging right over Ari's bed), so we went with just regular screws and screwed it directly to the wall (we thought about various other hanging techniques, but since it's not a rectangle at the top, our options were limited).

And here it is some more!





We're almost finished in here! I have one more thing to post individually about, and then a few more little, non-post worthy, things to finish up, and then I'm hoping for the final reveal/tour/source list next week. Here's the to-do list we made before we did the skyline (which is referred to as "secret project" on the list, since I didn't know when I'd post the picture):



Ari added "inspected by Lance." He's an odd boy.

Linking with:
Stone Gable's Tutorials, Tips, and Tidbits
Inspiration Gallery
The Shabby Nest's Frugal Friday
Hookin' Up With House of Hepworths
Tatertots and Jello's Weekend Wrap Up
Classy Clutter's Spotlight Saturday
I Heart Naptime's Sundae Scoop Link Party
Monday Funday
By Stephanie Lynn's Sunday Showcase Party
Tuesday's Treasures at My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Home Stories A to Z Tutorials and Tips
Time to Sparkle Link Party

29 comments:

  1. That looks great! I love seeing all your ideas for a boy's room.

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  2. I just love this Gretchen!! It is absolutely fantastic. I am especially loving how your tied the string around the wheel. And I admire your - well, Dave's patience with all those nails. It looks so good!!

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    1. Yes, there would have been many bent nails and bruised fingers if I had attempted the nails. I did most of the frustrating string work, though :)

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  3. It's so great! I love the ferris wheel. And I hear we are getting one in downtown Atlanta! Excellent timing. Also, what a fiddly project. It is obvious that Dave loves you VERY much. I've seen you together and he doesn't seem to be afraid of you, so love it is.

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    1. ooh, a ferris wheel in atlanta? That sounds both cool and terrifying. I suppose i will have to go on it. for the CHILDREN.

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  4. So artistic! I LOVE IT. I love how personal it is. I feel like you could do this for any city that had significance. I can see a bunch of Utah Mormons out here doing something like that with a silhouette of the temple. You are inspired :)

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    1. I sense an Etsy store in the making for some woodworking Mormon out there ;)

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  5. Such a cool piece of art -- the ferris wheel just makes it!
    - Lora

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    1. Thanks, Lora--everything's better with a ferris wheel, right? :)

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  6. This is so cool!
    Especially the ferris wheel with all the strings… would never have thought about mixing a wooden silhouette with strings, but it's perfect!

    Love, Midsommarflicka

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    1. I wouldn't have thought of it either, until I thought of the ferris wheel--then it just all made sense!

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  7. What a neat project! So creative and very very clever! Thanks for bringing the best of London to TUTORIALS TIPS AND TIDBITS!

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  8. Found this via Pinterest and it's awesome! I especially like how you used the thread for the spokes of the wheel - ingenius! Thanks for sharing!

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    1. Thanks so much, Chrissy--and thanks for stopping by :)

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  9. Oh my goodness I love this! I'm pinning it for the future :) I'm visiting from Monday Funday.. hope you'll stop by and visit sometime!

    -Bonnie @ Revolutionaries
    www.revolutionariesblog.com

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    1. Thanks so much, Bonnie! And love your blog--I already had it on my reader :)

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  10. This is super cool! What a fabulous idea! Thanks so much for sharing with us at Monday Funday!

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  11. This is so cool - I love that you made it out of wood. Funnily enough, I've had a very similar idea for our basement bar (albeit not in the shower) and I made a Seattle skyline mural. Great minds think alike, huh? =)

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  12. I love this project! Who doesn't need a London Skyline in their life? I would love it if you would come and link this up at my link party
    Dandelion Wishes Wednesday. I'm also pinning this :)

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  13. This is so absolutely impressive. I love it. I lived in England for a bit, so it holds a special place in my heart. I am just so inspired by your creativity and design eye. Great work. Jodi @ www.meaningfulmama.com

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  14. I'm not sure how I didn't comment on this! I LOVE it! It looks great in Ari's room too, but I think it would look better in my entryway.... (just saying...)

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